Merab Dvalishvili has promised to be fighting Sean O’Malley at UFC 316, and a toe injury is not going to throw him out of his game.
Recently, he posted a video showing Pinky’s toes on his right foot that are swollen Pinky’s toes after a training session, saying, “Why am I breaking my toes?” Dvalishvili added in the same video that he only blocks my toes when necessary, but he said he was surprised at how much attention the post was.
“I was surprised at how much people reacted,” Dvalishvili told reporters during a media scrum at the syndicated MMA in Las Vegas. “Everyone was like (got it all up); everyone, there’s nothing. Really, there’s nothing.”
The cause of the concern could be derived from a somewhat similar situation that unfolded during the first encounter this September, before Dvalishvili’s title fight beat O’Malley.
Just a few weeks after UFC 306, Dvalishvili showed off a photo featuring some terrible cuts that had been struggling with training. This has been called “next-level stupidity” after UFC CEO Dana White posted on social media. While Kat never put the fight at risk, White blows up Dvalishvili by releasing the news in the first place.
This time, White doesn’t place any emphasis on Dvalishvili’s decision to reveal his toe injury that leads to a second fight with O’Malley, but it’s safe to assume that his response is similar.
Dvalishvili showed off her feet and proved that her toes already looked good, and that she didn’t expect an injury to actually affect her performance.
“As you all see, there’s no more black and blue, but I’m still a little fat, but that’s a good thing,” Dvalishvili said. “As you can see, I’m walking. It’s a bit of a little pinky toe, and that doesn’t matter. … Like I said, I have nine other toes. I’m fine.”
Obviously, Dvalishvili doesn’t worry about toe injuries and after beating Umar Nurmagomedov in January, it appears he’s ready to defend his second title.
Dvalishvili vs. O’Malley 2 Headline UFC 316 On June 7th, 316 from Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, women’s bantamweight champion Julian Napeña defended the belt against Kayla Harrison in the co-main event.